You are a real estate owner and would like to rent out your house or apartments as a profitable source of income. You attach great importance to long-term and quiet tenancies. But what precautions can be taken to ensure harmonious and profitable rentals before the rental process begins? Your estate agent Engel & Völkers Switzerland has summarized the most important aspects of the rental and their preparation for you in order to prepare you for your upcoming rental.
Care in tenant search and tenant selection pays off
Even during the preparation of your rental you can avoid potential problems: Use the exclusive marketing strategies and real estate exposés of Engel & Völkers Switzerland to reach the desired target group with a long range in the tenant search. For example, if seniors are to move into your property, the reference to age-appropriate infrastructure and short daily journeys is beneficial, while young families value both easy accessibility of workplaces, as well as sufficient space and childcare facilities. For the subsequent rental process, it is important that the tenant party feel comfortable in the property and its environment, so that you already lay the foundation for a quiet tenancy by addressing the right target group.
When selecting a tenant, you can specify your preferences for the rental process: not only the formal information such as age, gender, marital status and job status play a role, the overall feeling between both parties should also be given a significant emphasis. During the viewing of the rental property, you have the opportunity to meet your potential tenants and to get a first impression of their personality. Your intuition is an important indicator here: If you feel that the candidates will treat the leased real estate with care, show their willingness to compromise during contract negotiations or later disagreements and present themselves communicatively to you, you should include them in the shortlist. The following applies also to the subsequent letting process: Transparent, direct and friendly communication between the tenants prevents most conflicts and ensures a long-term contract existence, from which both sides benefit.
Your rental: Make sure that you are solvent when choosing a tenant
In order to receive regular rent payments in the agreed amount, you should also check the solvency of the future tenant. On the occasion of the rental, you may request an excerpt from the debt collection register or the statement of net income. The rent of your property should not exceed one third of the income of the future tenant in order to be able to count on timely and continuous payments.
Tip: For your rental, the tenant's self-declaration in the form of the "residential registration form" provides a sound basis for assessing your candidates. Templates can be downloaded online, for example from tenants and landlord associations.
Important basic requirement: The legally binding lease for your rental
In Switzerland, the legal basis may depend on the canton in which you want to rent a property. In order to comply with the current regulations, you can obtain contract templates for your lease from interest groups or directly from Engel & Völkers Switzerland. If you make changes to these publicly available documents that contradict the applicable Code of Obligations (OR) or the Supplementary Ordinances on Rent and Lease of Residential and Business Premises (VMWG), these are not legally sustainable despite being anchored in the rental agreement. It is therefore advisable to leave the contract draft drawn up by experts untouched in order to avoid taking any risks.
The amount of the rent can be based either on the cost principle or on the locality principle. So that you can generate from your rental yield, the local rent should be higher than the rent amount of your unit: it covers all costs that arise as a landlord throughout the property and additionally generates a profit for you by the amount of local taxes. Your tenants are entitled to request the amount and calculation of the rent at any time from you as the landlord. In order to reasonably justify the local rent in front of the tenants, and to avoid risking any improper rent, you should use comparison properties and their rental amounts. Your real estate agent Engel & Völkers Switzerland will be glad to do this search for you.
